In 1982, Oman constructed its first refinery, at Mina al-Fahal. The plants capacity is now 85,000 bbl/d. Output from the facility, which is operated by the state-owned Oman Refinery Company (ORC), is used to meet local product demand. In June 2002, SK Engineering of South Korea was awarded a contract for the construction of a new desulfurization unit at Mina al-Fahal. A second refinery is under construction near the northern city of Sohar. Bids for construction of the project were solicited in March 2002, and JGC Corporation (Japan) was awarded the contract in May 2003. To facilitate this, Oman announced plans in April 2003 to build a $1 billion Pipeline that will run the 162 miles between the Oman Refinery Company and the new refinery in Sohar. When both the pipeline and the refinery begin operation in mid-2006, the line is to transport a mixed feedstock of crude from PDO and long residue from the Oman Refinery to Sohar for processing. The refinerys capacity is expected to be 51,000 bbl/d of Gasoline and 30,000 bbl/d each of diesel and fuel gas. The plant will also have a facility for extracting sulfur from gasoline and a catalytic cracker that will produce gas and gasoline from the leftover elements of the normal refining process.